The M23 rebels attacked the citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2012 and 2013 to rebel against the government and to fight for their rights.
The rebels belong to the Tutsi ethnic group and are close with the Tutsis in Rwanda (Aljazeera, 2013). This rebellion happened because the rebels did not like the pay and the conditions of the Congolese Army. In April of 2012, soldiers deserted the Congolese Army and began to wreak havoc in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Aljazeera, 2013). They mainly attacked the city of Goma in the North Kivu province.
The rebels invaded many villages, causing 800,000 people to flee from their homes. This all initially started because of a 2009 peace treaty between the government and the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which ended up never being fulfilled. But Congolese government officials and analysts report that this mutiny began because of the government's arrest of Bosco Ntaganda, who was the current leader of the CNDP and the alleged creator of M23 (Aljazeera, 2013).
The attacks went on for months, killing the citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eventually in November of 2013, after a 20 month rebellion, the M23 rebels surrendered. The rebels could not beat the government's troops and the forces of the United Nations (Aljazeera, 2013). The leaders of the rebels agreed to disarm their troops and to not fight anymore.
The agreement to disarm the M23 troops ended two decades of war and violence. Five million had been killed since 1998 because of war-related causes (Aljazeera, 2013). The Democratic Republic of the Congo hopes that they will soon have peace and no longer fear war or rebellion.
Sources:
Author Unknown. (2013, November 5). Q&A: Who are the DR Congo's M23 Rebels? Aljazeera. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/08/201382411593336904.html
Author Unknown. (2013, November 5). Q&A: DR Congo's M23 Rebels. BBC. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-20438531